Those Times
by msyu1
Summary: Edgeworth's introspection and his interaction with Mia, Manfred and Phoenix. Set during T&T and PWAA. A translation from Chinese.


**Note(msyu1): This is not my original work, just a translation from Chinese. I like this story so much, and I got the permission from author to** **translate and repost.**  
 **Original author: 苍绯鱼  
Author's note: This story is long. Please don't interrupt before I complete posting. Thank you.  
** **You need to play PWAA and T &T to understand the story.  
** **If you haven't played them yet, you may not understand or get spoilers.**  
 **Maybe you can find the shipping of Mia x Edgeworth and Phoenix x Edgeworth, even a little Manfred x Edgeworth.**  
 **If you don't think about shipping too much, you can just take it as friendship...nothing's wrong.**  
 **Although actually I just want to link the plots...**  
 **If you feel uncomfortable about what mentioned above, you can quit now.**  
 **But I need to remind you, maybe you miss a story you like so much.**  
 **So now it's your choice.**  
 **If you want to repost, please provide my ID and PM me the website.**

In fact, Miles Edgeworth didn't like himself at all.  
The name that no one called him after his father's death, the different choice he made after his father passed away, the nightmare every day after that incident, these and those frustration that he might not hold anything in the air, all of these things made him at a loss in a very young age.  
It was not the feeling for a young boy to admire his father, but that incident made him understand so-called betrayal before he learned to trust.  
So he followed the mentor who never smiled at him, and then began to coldly learn how to get desperate people to more desperate situation since that time. In the files that his fingers touched, every page was soaked with other people's sadness and his own resentment.

Sir said, no one is worth trusting, except yourself.  
He said, the first person that I never trust is myself.

You need to know, the creed for von Karma family is "perfection".  
Before his first trial, his confident mentor tied cravat on his neck, but he felt faint coldness in his spine, and he suddenly forgot all answers in that instant.  
Yes, he should have got the same confidence. As the youngest prosecutor, he had pride for his ability and time, and he also had promising possibilities and future. The hard work and preparation during this long time shouldn't make any possible accidents or mistakes.  
But the strange uneasiness in his heart inflated little by little, and it was not the stress as a rookie, but like some kind of self alert. He didn't have time to think about it too much, shooking his head and going to the prosecution bench.  
He didn't have any ideas about his asperation. As for now, it was to work hard for sir.  
Perfection, isn't it?

About the result, it was really bad.  
Although it was not a joke that prodigy prosecutor lost in his debut, but it was nothing better. The witness committed suicide in court, only leaving surprise and sorrow for people in the whole room.  
It was nothing related to perfection.  
When he clasped his hand soaked with cold sweats and walked into the prosecution's lobby, he passed by Ms. Rookie Lawyer, so he saw her expression to choke back tears. Along with the man near her had a determined face, it was his disdain.  
Yes, when the trial was back from recess, he found the truth, but he didn't want to admit his loss, and he couldn't do it as well.  
He didn't want to think about it. If he had given up at that time, would it have been different?  
He was in a trance when two lawyers got out, and then Edgeworth dashed to the nearest sink to wash his hands desperately.  
This time, did he get blood on his hands again?  
...It doesn't matter.  
Suddenly his mentor's voice was in his back.  
Anyway, you are not innocent at all. There's no difference to add more sin.  
He hurriedly looked back, but he didn't see anyone. Maybe he was hearing imaginary voices.  
-No, maybe that was an excuse for himself, an excuse to lessen the stress in his heart a little, and that was it.  
So, am I really this type of person?  
Dripping with sweat like collapase, chest clogged with something, he retched but got nothing. The embarrassing look in the mirror's reflection, compared to the high-spirited appearance he forced himself to be just now, it was so unlike him.  
This one is the real me...  
...Here you are.  
Ms. Lawyer that left just now suddenly came back, and she gave him her handkerchief. The time when she passed by him was like years ago.  
I know you also feel bad about this. It's not only me.  
He took her handkerchief hesitately, but he couldn't express the bitterness in his heart.  
-Actually, I even don't have the right for feeling bad...

His mentor taught him so many things, but from beginning to end, he didn't give him one reason to persuade himself, the reason to be a prosecutor.  
But he couldn't take care of that long ago. What he did was just to get rid of fear in his heart.

Then before long, he heard the news: That man, Ms. Lawyer's boyfriend and colleague, died.  
A few days later, he heard that Ms. Lawyer would appear in court again.  
Mia Fey.  
He even didn't have time to return her handkerchief, and she had to face her biggest wound.  
At first, the prosecution was his place, and it was another battle like fate. But sir suddenly cancelled his qualification and didn't give him any chance to refuse.  
I want to protect you, and your deserved "perfection".  
That condescending mercy was too unreasonable, and he didn't feel grateful to that. But as for her battle, he needed to see the result in his own eyes.  
Maybe he expected she would completely destroy him in a way.  
So when he was in the jury and saw the defendant, he felt his whole world collapsed.  
-Phoenix Wright.  
-Why?

That high-spirited kid who was not even a teenager hastily stood up for his justice. What did that small impulse change? He didn't know it even now.  
At that time, I had that impulse because I trusted you, Phoenix.  
He didn't remember much. When he was asked about that after that class trial, he answered something like that.  
In this world, not every trust needs reason to trust.  
In many situations, it is only an instinct.  
...How was that guy doing?  
He got to university smoothly, and he even dated a beautiful girlfriend. Although he was silly, he was not the person who tolarated others' bully easily.  
...Then, maybe he had already forgotten him.  
Because he was in his life for only one year...It was so short that when he look back in his past in his old years, those time doesn't have any traces.  
But he himself in grade school was already dead...  
Please, please win the trial by any chance.  
Ms. Lawyer couldn't hear his voices in his heart, and she couldn't see that he clenched his hands too much that his nails left faint traces in his hand.  
But he at least could trust the justice in her eyes, the twinkle that even made himself run away in the past.

When the devil with angel smile finally walked down the witness stand, Edgeworth suddenly felt the heavy weight in his heart got released.  
He couldn't describe how he was feeling.  
In the time and world he didn't know about, everything was not like past any more. He used to ignore something, but then it became inaccessible to him.  
It was so bad...  
When he passed the lobby, he heard the conversation inside by chance.  
The fool who had done stupid things finally cleared his name, and he hastily went to find Ms. Lawyer.  
He said, if I learn to become a lawyer, do I have enough time?  
He said, there's a friend that I desperately want to help.  
He finally found out that this fool had that expression in his eyes. He was so serious and determined that no one could change it.  
But when he heard the word "lawyer", his heart still coldly felt throbbing pain.

Maybe it was because of sir, later Edgeworth's path as a prosecutor didn't meet any obstacles.  
And each of his trials circumvented Mia Fey.  
In the time that he didn't care about, his fame as a prodigy spread again. Maybe because there were so many prodigies, but not many of them were good-looking enough, so there was a significantly higher probability that all newspapers chose his photos.  
Then there were some rumors, one wave after another.  
Victory by any means. Nearly everyone commented him in this way.  
How cruel were those comments to someone who once pursuited truth? Only he himself knew the answer.  
The darkness in Prosecutor's Office was not much less than anywhere else in the world, and young people who showed talent too much was everyone's enemy.  
But he could still stand there, at least seemingly intact.  
But how much was his mentor's power? How much was his own capability?  
He didn't remember it was before or after the rumors, but lots and lots of letters suddenly overwhelmed him.  
The content was trivial matters, and unimportant self-talk.

Today Larry confessed his love in the downstairs of female domitory, and he became a drowned rat...  
My piano grades was as bad as ever, and the teacher looked at my fingers with tears...  
Sometimes I really think it's good to live easily, but it seems that I don't have that choice...

Well, Edgeworth, it was much more difficult to switch my major than I expected...

The last sentence was: I want to see you.  
I want to see you.  
The name on those envelopes was Phoenix Wright, but they didn't have Phoenix's address. In the envelope with phone number and address, it was from Grossberg Co. Law Offices.  
Maybe that guy asked the chief to find his address. Edgeworth thought like that.  
...Fool is really fool. If you write like that, how could I reply?

Mr. Payne, so-called rookie killer lost his case to a rookie lawyer from Fey Co. Law Offices.  
When Edgeworth heard this news, he just had Mia Fey's autopsy report on his hand.  
He asked the coroner to enter the morgue and tied that handkerchief in her stiff wrist.  
...Sorry, really sorry. It took me so long to return your handkerchief.  
One of the people who cared for him in the past died again.- Maybe she was the last one.  
He reached out and arranged his cravat. He could feel his eyes had some kind of fires spread out.  
I will revenge for you. I must.  
Even if I gamble everything, I will still win the case for you.

The lawyer standing in the opposite side was really that familiar face. He only glanced at that photo once in the files, and he thought it was someone with the same name.  
That guy really became a defense lawyer.  
What was it? What was it?  
It was the position that he made his mind to give up. That was the life he buried on his own.  
Why could he switch to that and take it for granted?  
The past that he thought as forgotten was casually picked up and returned by that guy, and he couldn't refuse.  
In fact, he didn't feel apathetic at all. He knew how it felt for sadness all the time.  
It was impossible to say unhappy, but that action was too condescending, and he couldn't accpt that at ease.  
So he only had childish bicker on the rebound, and other people might take it as quarrel.  
This was his first loss. Truth was not exactly alongside with him.  
But he didn't care about it so much. At least he found the true killer, and he didn't let Ms. Lawyer down.  
But when he looked over the files later, he found his every sentence was so strange.  
Was that person really me?  
Were those sentences really what I wanted to say?  
No, no , no no no.  
...It was sir...The person who stood there was sir.  
It was his words. It was his expression. These and those were so familiar during the long time.  
But, how about me?  
Where am I? Where am I?

It was a little unexpected. He thought he should have seen how sir stamp with rage.  
He stood in from of sir for nearly half an hour, but he didn't get any comments.  
Then his mentor stood up and walked close to window, with back towards him.  
I give you another chance. Next time you can't lose your trial to that man by any chance.  
At that time, Edgeworth wanted to ask, what if I lose?  
-Do you want to give up on me?  
Edgeworth could still remember, when his father added a wound to sir's perfect record, the undisguised hatred in his eyes. That man couldn't allow anything and anyone to break his perfection and pride.  
Maybe he lost it because of obsession. About that horrible persistence, he couldn't understand it, so he couldn't do it.  
Although he learned how to judge a competition based on victory or failure, but Wright, why couldn't I hate you?  
When he walked down the stairs, he heard that man's voice winding up with stairs.  
Excuse me, do you know where is Mr. Edgeworth?  
Excuse me, do you know where is Mr. Edgeworth?  
Excuse me, do you know where is Mr. Edgeworth?  
He just asked that to every person he met, but he didn't realize that no one gave him any answers easily.  
That fool. Edgeworth chuckled, and then felt stunned.  
-The last time he smiled like this was years ago.

Then was the Steel Samurai case.  
No one had ever expected that Edgeworth gave up the victory when it was so close.  
He answered sir after the verdict, it was just my pride. The victory based on opponent's fault was not somthing worth celebrating.  
You are really different from me, from my expectation...  
Sir didn't say it directly, but he understood that expression.  
That was good.  
At least, his life was not totally out of his control.  
Because he was eventually Edgeworth, the same Edgeworth as Gregory Edgeworth.  
But if sir even gave up on him...what else had he left?  
When he passed by the lobby, the defenddant incoherent with happiness saw him, so he had to get in out of politeness. Then he saw the girl with strange attires and flamboyance looking at him innocently. It seemed that she forgot that it was him that made her the main suspect for last case.  
...Why does Ms. Lawyer have such a strange little sister?  
That was too bad, Edgeworth.  
The eyes that stared at him in court did that again. That straightforward fool didn't think about it too much, but he suddenly felt awkward and didn't know where to look at. So he had to turn back his face in a flurry.  
...It would have been better had we not met.  
He could have been a excutioner, but because of his appearance, his heart had more mercy.  
...Don't ever show your face in front of me again.  
He suddenly said it too much, and he felt regretful later. He just needed some time to collect his thought. Ever since that man stood in the other side, the himself in his memory suddenly got destroyed.  
He didn't know how to continue, so he quickly ended their conversation and ran away. The girl behind him was still thinking about the relationship of Nick and Mr. Edgeworth, but he couldn't listen to it any more.  
He even didn't know it himself. How could other people know the answer?

He continued that nightmire at night. In the dark world, he couldn't breathe. The insane person and helpless father came again, and he couldn't run away. The dream suddenly ended, and it was the lost memory from his past.  
He saw himself as a kid, who curled up in the corner of the small space, and everything around him suddenly disappeared, only leaving the man standing in front of him, and he couldn't see the face.  
It was you.  
It was you who killed your father.  
So then cold hands seemed to strangle his throat, but they changed direction when close to him. It felt like soaking trhough skin and muscle, and then they clentched his heart and made it never bump again...  
He roused suddenly from sleep, and he could still feel that coldness in his chest. It was like piercing wind moving back and forth in his ribcage, and it echoed desperately.  
About the real shape of the world, he had already experenced that when he was eight years old.  
It seemed that he couldn't sleep later, so he randomly grabed some letters that he didn't have time to read.  
Even he met himself, he still chose to write letters persistently.  
But this time the address was changed to Wright Co. Law Offices.  
Wright, Law.  
His smiled faintly and didn't think of it much, when he suddenly found someone else's letter in the letters.  
The name of the sender was Robert Hammond.

Let me defend you, please.  
If there hadn't been a glass wall between them, that guy would have rushed in. He felt amusing somehow, and that man was worried about that more than himself.  
Well, how could that man say something that he would cry in front of young girl.  
I don't believe the rookie attorney who only won by luck.  
It was still his bad habit about not relenting.  
It was a trap. Normal people only knew how to calculate two minus one was one, but only he knew what happened. As someone about law enforcement, he knew his words were not convincing at all. But he didn't know that no one wanted to be his attorney. It was not easy that his relations with other people were so bad like this.  
But he still couldn't agree with that person.  
That case would be related to the pain in the past, and maybe it destroyed his dire state of "present", what he tried to varnish over. It was like to take down his guard in front of that man, showing his guilt and weakness. It was self-evident that what would happen next.  
He would rather that man remembered him as the kid who got the impulse for justice than the stranger that even himself didn't know...  
But Phoenix said with a dry smile after his repeating mock words, I want to help you.  
No matter what.  
That guy was always so serious, wasn't he?  
Or wasn't because the person was him?  
And it was coincidence that suddenly an earthquake happened.  
It was the leftover of that incident, so Edgeworth hid himself under the desk, nearly like conditional reflex.  
Even now, when the ground was not stable, he could still feel the strong suffocation. The feeling to draw away vital force little by little was nothing better than torment in hell.  
It was good that Phoenix and Maya were busy finding evidence, so they didn't have much time to see his embarrassing weakness.

At least he had some time to say something before the trial.  
When they passed by, Edgeworth put something in Phoenix's pocket.  
He knew that Phoenix switched the job suddenly, so his style as rookie defense attorney was unfocused, especially this time the opponent was his mentor, someone who always prepared so well. Hearing the objections of his mentor one after another, Edgeworth felt his cold sweat was not less than the defense attorney with bemused face.  
It was bad for health to be his client.  
But that guy always tried to bluff in court, but at least he was the most lucky guy in the world. It was really him to unexpectedly rescue from desperate situation and overturn the seemingly solid situation.  
But he never expected that Ms. Lawyer's little sister was also ardent as herself.  
It was her help that they had one more day.  
Edgeworth looked at ceilings in the detention center out of sheer boredom.  
He remembered when he was very young, father asked him, do you like miracles?  
He said, no, because they rarely happen once.  
Father smiled when he listened to that reason. Then he asked, when miracles happen again and again, what does that mean?  
Young Edgeworth pondered for a while, raising his head to his father.  
-Maybe that is not called miracle, but called wonder.  
Yes, it is.  
Miracle will not happen again and again. What happens again and again is wonder.  
And the wonder he got was that determined fool.

Looking at that face that acted fool, Edgeworth had already made up his mind.  
He could not run away in the end.  
He suddenly understood why sir always hated so-called truth. In fact, truth was the most cruel nightmare, and that made people conceal their weakness and resist it, but they couldn't run away from it.  
They were victims in the same tradegy. Did they need to kill each other in the end?  
The truth for this time maybe shouldn't have buried without any reason.  
So although he hesitated for so long, he still chose to ask Phoenix.  
I can't make up my mind. ... ... It's... a nightmare I've had. A memory... of a murder.  
Although he might feel unworthy to what he chose now for his life, but he didn't have a better choice.  
He told the small details carefully. Those were what he didn't tall anyone else, the leftover of himself.  
He lost his father, his mentor, and even Ms. Lawyer. But if he lost him...he would only deceive himself, and maybe this world was not meaningful at all.  
But Phoenix's eyes were clear and transparent. He said, I will prove your innocence.  
He said, I believe in you.  
Edgeworth never worried about the results of the case. The facts without any lies were the easiest conclusion to make sense.  
Maybe it was his mentor's hint or his conscience, but he couldn't tolerate it any more.  
It was the last chance to free himself from long suffering, so how could he miss it as the prodigy?  
When he finished saying please make the trial once again, he felt longlost relax.  
The whole world he faced gave him surpring - no, startling sights.  
Except speechless Phoenix in the defense bench - although that man didn't say anything, he didn't seem surprised at all.  
It was as he expected.

I'm sorry. I've just wasted all of your effort.  
In the chaotic recession, Edgeworth felt childish guilty, and that made him think of the helpless young suspect in the class trial, but this time their roles got overturned.  
I'm sorry. But I don't believe in your "nightmare."  
That guy was still looking over the court record. Did he know the word "overdoing"?  
I'll prove you're innocent. Trust me.  
It was so simple.  
The reason why this fool was so lucky was just because he chose the simplest way.  
When Edgeworth felt somewhat moved, Phoenix suddenly approached him and put something in his hand.  
Well, do you get guilty verdict by any means? Who knows whether you play tricks to prove your guilt?

Did he take Prosecutor Edgeworth and Client Edgeworth separately?  
What was he thinking...  
Edgeworth didn't look at what was put into his hand. He knew it clearly.  
-That was something called promise.  
So its weight was heavier than the heaviest thing he could think of.  
So he put it carefully into his breast pocket, the place nearest to his heart.

Although maybe it was the most difficult battle, the truth with so many coincidences was found by the rookie defense attorney, when he found it little by little with his cold sweats.  
The haunting curse for so long finally got to the time to end eternally.  
He never saw sir so embarrassing, and many details of his memory got vague. What he remembered clearly was how he looked over the homework and repeatedly told him about perfection again and again. He also remembered the cravat that sir tied in that day.  
Maybe he was somewhat ingrateful.  
He knew he was not worried about the crime, but the perfect life destroyed by his crime.  
But now he didn't have any choices.  
So he bowed to his mentor's back gently. Maybe no one paid any attention to it, but knew that sir must have seen that.  
In such a long time, it was not only himself that had a hard time. The war didn't have any winners. Everyone was victim.  
But the lawyer who sweated nearly to collapse was the first one to smile.

...Thank you.  
He suddenly got awkward when he needed to say something, although it was such a simple sentence.  
Edgeworth gave back what Phoenix gave him in his hand.  
-That was his attorney's badge.  
That guy's decision was much more determined than what he had expected.  
...Don't gamble that thing casually next time. What if you lose the case?  
If it's not you, I won't gamble it at all.  
Phoenix clentched his badge in his hand, and then he took out what Edgeworth secretly put in.  
Didn't you make that decision at first?  
Prosecutor's badge shone cold lights in his hands. Compared to attorney's badge, prosecutor's badge had more edges, and it fitted better on Edgeworth.  
...I just don't want to wear it as a defendant.  
No, that's because you never thought you would wear it again.  
The words were so biting, so Edgeworth had mood to argue with him.  
So you won again by your luck. If you had lost, how would you have been so proud?  
Then Phoenix paused for a while, and then he joked, I gamble my whole life to you. If I had lost, it would have been so bad.  
-Whole life.  
That simple-minded guy didn't know how horrible he made that decision, did he?  
How painful it was to change the whole life? He know the answer better than anyone else.  
...Wright, why did you decide to change your life for me?  
Because it's so bad to think about it in my whole life. I just choose the less painful way.  
Phoenix continued and tried to make light of it, and then he pinned two badges in Edgeworth's lapel.  
-Welcome back, Miles Edgeworth.

Touching the two badges near each other, Edgeworth suddenly felt so warm in his chest.  
It turned out that I am here. I am always here.  
The time that stopped for so long finally started to pass.  
...Yeah, I'm back.

 **Author's note: I didn't want to write any shippings, but they do exist.  
** **Note(msyu1): Thank you for reading! I hope you like this story as I do.**


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